January 03, 2008

Brooklyn's Top Elected Official Says: I'm for Barack Obama

But I suppose we should say high up, like right here, that we're talking about Brooklyn, Iowa, and not the slightly more populous place that we all know and love with the famous bridge.

The fellow who is going for Barack is Mayor Loren Rickard, who told The Brooklyn Paper's Gersh Kuntzman that, though a Republican, he's had it with the Bush administration and wants to campaign for someone against the war who's also sharp and electable.

So Obama's his man.

The sad truth here in the real Brooklyn (if we can be so bold) is that virtually all of the top elected officials have announced for Hillary Clinton, she who has only tepidly opposed the Iraq war (except, of course, for the times she has actually supported it).

We must also say this: That in sending Kuntzman out to cover the Midwest caucases, The Brooklyn Paper set itself apart from the MainStreamMedia crowd, adding a little levening that also adds perspective, and affirming the importance of having an abundance of local news outlets to spice our news diet.

Kuntzman went to the other Brooklyn with a gift from the top guy in the real Brooklyn, who would be Borough President Marty Markowitz. Marty wrote a proclamation declaring
Rickard's town to be the "official Brooklyn of the Midwest." (photo is of Rickard holding proclamation.)

Kuntzman had a pretty decent article, some months back, on the battle for the political soul of Brooklynites, pitting New
York's own Senator Hillary against the junior Senator from
Illinois, Obama.

And now with Obama having won the Iowa caucases by a huge margin, some in the real Brooklyn must be asking: Why are all of our Congressmembers backing Hillary?

Is it just for the piddling perks that come with marching to drums of the political bosses?

There are countless tens of thousands of Brooklynites deeply opposed to the Iraq war, who distrust a candidate like Hillary, a hack despite her pretensions of progressivism, who stands the middle ground on everything no matter how deeply moral, how black and white, the choice seems to be to others.